Living a healthy life with diabetes

Posted on: 7 April 2015

Tinnitus is an involuntary ringing or buzzing sound in the ears. For everyone who suffers from tinnitus, their experience is different. For some people the sound might be consistent, for some it might be soft and then become louder, and for some it might appear at certain times of the day. For people with mild tinnitus, this condition is annoying, but for people with more severe tinnitus, it can truly cause great damage in their lives. The buzzing sound can interrupt with focus and really hamper work productivity, and it may be so persistent that it can actually stop you from being able to ignore it and form normal relationships with people.

You should absolutely make an appointment with an audiologist to get to the root of the problem, but you might also find that changing your diet could help to decrease the symptoms of tinnitus. Here are three kinds of foods that you should be trying to avoid.

Foods that increase your blood sugar levels

Tinnitus is mostly caused by exposure to very loud noises over a long period of time, but your blood sugar level can also play a part in the intensity of your tinnitus. In fact, one study found that 82% of people with tinnitus have high blood sugar levels, which would suggest that there is a direct correlation between the two. If you change your eating habits to lower your blood sugar level, you could help ease the severity of your current tinnitus or prevent the onset of tinnitus altogether.

Some of the worst foods for increasing your blood sugar levels include soda drinks, packaged cookies, fruit juices, french fries, and doughnuts. Oatmeal, cinnamon, and broccoli are foods that have the power to reduce low blood sugar, so try and introduce these into your daily diet.

Foods that increase your cholesterol

Eating fatty foods that raise cholesterol levels is never a great idea – high cholesterol can spark heart disease, strokes, and diabetes – but it can also wreak havoc with your tinnitus symptoms. It is actually recommended that tinnitus sufferers reduce their cholesterol intake to 200mg per day. In order to reduce cholesterol, you need to remove as much saturated fat from your diet as possible, and these fats are principally found in red meat and dairy products.

Also be wary of trans fats, which are found in a lot of packaged baked goods like cookies, cakes, and doughnuts. But this doesn't mean that fats have to be avoided altogether. Omega 3 fatty acids can actually lower dangerous cholesterol levels, and they can be found in fish such as salmon and herring, as well as walnuts and almonds.

Salty foods

Salty foods can be a cause of high blood pressure. This means that your blood vessels will be constricted and this will prevent adequate blood flow to your ears, resulting in the buzzing or ringing sound that comes with tinnitus. For this reason, it's a good idea to eliminate as much salt from your diet as possible – but this requires a little more discipline than being strict with the salt shaker at the dinner table. Start reading food labels on everything you buy and make this a habit. Always look out for foods that are high in sodium and avoid them. Also, always purchase fresh meats instead of packaged meats. Packaged meats that can survive in the fridge for a week or more are typically treated with high levels of salt so that they can be preserved.

Follow this eating advice, and you can make sure that your tinnitus does not stop you from living your life.